I am a relatively new user in Ask Ubuntu site, which is a subsite of the Stack Exchange network. After participating in the Questions and answers in the AU site for a while, I see that, the "tags" are very important in this site. (It is also very important on all SE sites). I often see and feel that, Moderators and Community members have a hard time deleting tags, which were created by users (without having good knowledge about the importance of tags). I also experienced a situation where a user trying to delete ubuntu-netbook tag, created a new one as ubuntu-n accidentally and was unaware of this new tag. (We are requested to delete that tag, because that is no longer important).

So, I feel that, tag creation should not be that easy and should go through some approval by moderators before being used in the system. That's why I am proposing this request.

We can apply to the system one or more of these methods to prevent unimportant tags being created.

We can increase the required reputation level from 300 to 2000. It is now 300

New tags should go through moderator approval before being used. The user can still type a new tag name, but that new tag will only appear in the question after moderator approval

sorry, I was asking about AU. edited the question
–
AnwarJun 27 '12 at 10:13

1

You need to talk about raising that bar on meta.askubuntu.com, then, as it's a site-specific setting. 300 rep does sound low for the "create tag" privilege. But as far as making moderators approve new tags: ugh.
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Ernest Friedman-HillJun 27 '12 at 13:04

1 Answer
1

300 is quite a high enough limit honestly. I mean, if you reach 300 rep, it means you did participate in the community and the site itself (at least a bit).
2K seems like too much for me. Tags are important — yes — but a wrong tag might not create so many problems, and in any case, not that many problems to justify a 2K limit privilege.

Another thing: apart from the fact that moderators already have quite a few duties to take care of, adding this one wouldn't have that much effect. Consider that a tag, in order to survive, must be used.

If you create a tag and nobody else uses it, the system will purge it. So it's not like a wrong tag is a scar forever. It'll be seen sooner or later, either by the system or by the community: no need for exclusive moderator action.